CHENNAI: CM Jayalalithaa on Saturday urged the Central government to exempt all activities relating the livelihood and socio-economic development of fishermen should be exempted from Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) restrictions.
The Chief Minister made this request in speech at the 26th meeting of the Southern Zonal Council on December 12 at Vijayawada, which was read out by State Finance Minister O Panneerselvam. The meeting was presided over by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
“At present, the CRZ regulations hamper the creation of fisheries-related infrastructural facilities such as fishing harbours and fish landing centres, fish drying yards and processing centres, traditional boat building yards, ice plants etc. This affects the livelihood of fishermen. Hence all activities that are directly related to and have an impact on the livelihood and socio economic development of fishermen may be exempted from CRZ restrictions”, the CM said.
Referring to the security of fishermen, Jayalalithaa said the Tamil Nadu government Nadu was planning to supply 30,000 Distress Alert Transmitters (DAT) to registered motorized and mechanized fishing crafts to transmit weather advisories / warnings in a phased manner from this year. “The Centre has released `2 crore as first instalment for implementation of the scheme, I request it to extend 75 per cent subsidy to ensure more fishermen avail of the scheme”, she added.
Jayalalithaa also said with regard to the Centrally sponsored schemes sanctioned under fisheries sector to TN, funds to the extent of `203.70 crore had to be released by the Government of India. Stating that all efforts were being taken to ensure coastal security and security of fishermen, the CM said and urged the Centre to relax the non-implementable condition that for the reimbursement of Central Excise Duty on High Speed Diesel (HSD), the owners of the mechanized fishing boats should belong to the BPL category.